Less than two percent of quake-hit people living in tents: Erra

Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra) deputy chairman Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed said on Sunday less than two percent of the affected people are living in tents, and those would also be shifted to some sort of sheltered houses before the upcoming winter.
He said most of the people are safe from rains as they have repaired their houses from CGI sheets provided to them.
Referring to some of the achievements of Erra with the help of its donors and NGOs, he said there was no major epidemic in the quake-hit areas, there was no death wave any where in these areas and no one died due to lack of food and shelter.
He said decision had been taken to move Balakot town to a new site called Bakrial, adding town planning would begin after completion of a detailed topographic survey, which was currently underway.
He said major seismic survey was conducted by Pakistani experts while foreign experts helped in the micro-seismic survey of damaged areas. He said rural housing was being given top priority and 85 percent assessment of damaged houses have been completed and over Rs 22 billion has been distributed among the 300,000 households to repair their houses.
He said those who will not complete the "plinth level" stage by December 31, will not be eligible to receive next instalment. He said survey of damaged houses and buildings in urban areas of Muzaffarabad would be started from August 10 and completed within 30 days.
Nadeem said instalment of Rs75,000 would be given after the approval of design of the house while the second instalment of Rs75,000 would be given at the start of the construction work. He said the survey in Shangla, Kohistan and Neelum valley would be launched very soon.
He said construction in 'red zones' in Muzaffarabad and Balakot has been completely banned as some of these areas are near the fault-line. He said about 20 percent areas of Muzaffarabad and whole of Balakot has been declared 'red zone'.
About the impact of rains on the reconstruction work, he said there had been over 185 landslides in quake-hit areas and 145 of them have been cleared so far and the work on remaining was in full swing.
Nadeem said under the livelihood programme, Rs3000 per month are being distributed among 161,000 families for the last three months. He said 50,000 cases are pending for verification. To a question he said there is no shortage of any construction material and it will be over by September 15.